OVERVIEW

The course provides the basic theories and techniques for the field of Interaction Design, aiming at the acquisition of the fundamental methodologies and technical skills necessary to a complete and reliable mastery of the interaction design development process. To this aim, students will be involved along the whole semester in the development of concrete projects of interactive products.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course provides the student with the methodology, the theory, and the techniques for the design of interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives. This relies on the mastery of the development process for the understanding of the capabilities and desires of people and on the kinds of technology available to interaction designers, together with a knowledge of how to identify requirements and develop them into a suitable design. The course will cover standard techniques as well as an introduction to advanced topics, including sound and music computing (as a complementary component of visual and haptic interfaces), and emotional and social interfaces. A coursework devoted to the realization of the development process of a concrete interaction design project of an interactive product will be implemented during the whole semester, in a simulated working environment typical of Startups. Further, students will learn to design and manage motion capture sessions using the Qualisys industry standard motion capture system available at Casa Paganini-InfoMus. Finally, students will learn techniques to present their results, including elevator pitches and reporting to stakeholders.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Acquisition of concrete skills in the Interaction Design (ID) development process for multimedia and multimodal interfaces: how to manage the development process (Iterative, User-Centered, Participatory Design); usability, user experience, and evaluation in HCI/ID. Basic introductory knowledge on the design of emotional and social interfaces, and foundations on sound and music computing and interactive sonification.

PREREQUISITES

Foundations of computer science; basic knowledge on software engineering.

TEACHING METHODS

The course will include group projects / coursework developed during the whole semester in weekly sessions, supported by the team of researchers of the Casa Paganini – InfoMus Research Centre (www.casapaganini.org) and in collaboration with the Wylab startup incubator, including prototyping using various tools, e.g. Android Studio, Unity, and EyesWeb, and evaluation of usability of interfaces also based on statistical techniques (e.g. T-test, ANOVA). Group projects and prototyping include one or more sessions with the Qualisys motion capture platform available at Casa Paganini - InfoMus, as well as other available audiovisual and sensor technology.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Introduction to Human Computer Interaction and Interaction Design (ID). The ACM curricula on HCI.

Foundations of human perception and cognition for human-centred interactive systems. Usability and User experience.

Interfaces: command-based, WIMP and GUI, Virtual reality, Mobiles, Multimedia, Speech, Touch, Air-based gesture, Motion Capture, Haptic, Shareable, Tangible, Wearable, AR/MR, Multimodal interfaces integrating sound and haptics.

Designing, developing, and evaluating interfaces: the ID development process.

Design Principles – Usability: learnability, visibility, errors, efficiency.

Design Techniques: Task, User, Domain Analysis, Prototyping, User testing;

User Experience design - Emotional and Social Interfaces.

Theories and models supporting the development process.

Evaluation and research methods:

Experiment design; Controlled experiments; Statistical techniques for the analysis of interfaces (foundations).

For students in Robotics Engineering (5 CFU) specific content will not be required at the exam. 

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Course slides and suggested readings available online on the Files of the Teams Class of the course.
• Preece, Rogers, Sharp (2023) “Interaction Design – Beyond Human-Computer Interaction”, Wiley, 6th Ed. 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ANTONIO CAMURRI (President)

RADOSLAW NIEWIADOMSKI

GUALTIERO VOLPE (President Substitute)

GIACOMO LEPRI (Substitute)

ALBERTO MASSARI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

https://corsi.unige.it/en/corsi/11160/students-timetable

https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti//index.php?_lang=en

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Two alternatives for the exam:

In the first, the exam consists of two parts:

1) Continuous evaluation: Groups of 2/3 students will be defined at the beginning of the semester. Each group will be assigned a project/coursework and will do the ID development process lasting the whole semester: each group will develop requirements, sketching, prototyping, evaluation, and will contribute to other groups during weekly lessons on group projects. Weekly verification during the lessons with all groups participating will enable interaction and cooperation among groups, in a typical Interaction Design development process. Evaluation of each student will take into account how s/he performed during the iterations of the ID development process, and how much s/he contributed to other group projects.

2) Final oral presentation of the coursework in a simulation of a startup contest, in collaboration with the Wylab incubator of startups (Wylab.net).

As alternative with the previous one, students who do not choose to participate to the whole semester coursework in collaboration with Wylab may choose a traditional oral exam.

Students with certification of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), disabilities, or other special educational needs must contact the instructor at the beginning of the course to agree on teaching and examination methods that, while respecting the course objectives, take into account individual learning styles and provide appropriate compensatory tools. It is reminded that the request for compensatory/dispensatory measures for exams must be sent to the course instructor, the School representative, and the “Settore servizi per l'inclusione degli studenti con disabilità e con DSA” office (dsa@unige.it) at least 10 working days before the test, as per the guidelines available at the link: https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa

ASSESSMENT METHODS

In the case of participation in the project during the semester, the students divided into small groups each made up of 2-3 students, will present the progress of their work on the interaction design (ID) process on a weekly basis, in which their critical reasoning ability will be assessed, the use and mastery of the vocabulary and specialized theories and techniques of ID. A startup contest simulation at the end of the course, with a jury formed in collaboration with the Wylab startup incubator (wylab.net) will enable to evaluate students’ ability to present their results obtained, through an elevator pitch and a demo.

Students who do not choose the participation in projects carried out during the semester will take the oral exam which will enable to verify their critical reasoning skills, their use and mastery of the vocabulary and specialist ID theories and techniques.

Exam schedule